Authors: Peter Lok
There would be no war right now, Kr’shl thought to himself
, the time was not yet right
. “We have border skirmishes with the humans
fairly
regularly. It is quite a nuisance. This area is not fully claimed by the humans of the PAA, so we should be able to strike without provoking war.”
“That is good.”
Kr’shl found himself reacting more eagerly to the thought of fight
ing
than he expected. “As this is an offensive operation, do I have your permission to attack?”
“You have my permission. Do not be too eager to cause damage,” warned Jk’shth.
“Very well.” Kr’shl turned to an assistant and ordered, “ Launch the new Zr’prihl Hunter units on my command authority. This will be an excellent test
,
and they
can
arrive within hours
using
the
new
booster
units
.” This was turning into a most
auspicious
morning despite the early hour. If the Shre’lor was recovered he would gain great prestige. “Grand Master?”
h
e asked with great politeness. “Please accompany me to the Command Centre. We can observe the proceedings from there.”
***
“Are we set for low altitude parachute extraction, X?” Joshua asked his mecha’s AI. This AI had been with him since he had piloted his first HARM unit into combat. Some pilots
gave
their AIs real names, but he couldn’t bring himself to do that. His AI,
whatever its
upgrades, would always be X, named after the X-14 prototype he had piloted.
“All systems are green,”
the AI replied in its synthesized voice,
“this
mecha is in aerial deployment mode. I am ready if you are.”
His AI had developed a dry sense of humour some years back. The techs said it was okay
,
and might have happened because
the AI had been running so long. Joshua didn’t mind
,
so
the humour
had stayed.
“Unit One, ready.” Joshua called out.
“Unit Two, ready.” Penny called out.
“Roger, that,” the transport pilot replied over the intercom. “Loadmaster, drop door.”
Motors began to whine and the large cargo ramp at the back of the plane began to lower. The
converted
stealth
bomber
was flying low, around
5
0 metres off the ground. They were running in stealth mode and were next to invisible right now, but the low altitude made it safer for dropping the mechas within. The plane might be invisible to radar, but the HARMs were not.
“Standby,” said the pilot. Moments passed, then the red drop light turned green. “Over drop zone,” the pilot announced.
“Locks off,” called out the loadmaster. “Drop one!”
He pushed a button
to release
a drogue chute attached to
the back of
Joshua’s HARM unit
. The chute trailed out
behind the plane
,
opened
,
and Joshua’s HARM was jerked backwards right out of the cargo compartment.
A few seconds later, the drogue chute for Penny’s HARM unit opened and jerked her mecha out of the aircraft too.
Once clear
,
each HARM unit blew the explosive bolts attaching
its
drogue chute.
Falling quickly, they
shifted
from their kneeling configuration
in
to a crouched landing position, firing their jump rockets to land safely in a cloud of dust in the African bush.
“Unit One, down,” Joshua announced. H
e unlimbered his primary weapon
,
a
coilgun
that fired electromagnetically accelerated projectiles at hypersonic velocities.
“Perimeter scan is clear,”
announced
his mecha’s AI
.
“It does not look like we have been detected. A small herd of large animals is half a kilometre to the northwest.”
Joshua took a quick look at the night vision data. “Elephants!”
he
exclaimed. Welcome to Africa, he thought to himself. “Too bad there’s no time for sightseeing.”
“Unit Two, down,” Penny spoke over the radio. “We’re going to miss the safari.”
Bringing up a map on his cockpit display, he selected the route to the Kahamba Mine. “Penny, form on me.”
***
Alpha Team had regrouped after the parachute landing and was holding on a small rise that was barely higher than the tallest building in the Mine. Angie had landed a little roughly, but was fine.
“You’re right, this is almost too easy,” Mitch
muttered
. Scanning the mine site with his electronic binoculars, he zoomed in on the visual feed that displayed via his helmet’s HUD.
“It looks like the power is out for the entire mine and the lab, ” Willie added. “There is some emergency lighting on and the guards look totally disorganized.” Even as he watched, half of the floodlights on the perimeter fence came on
,
then flickered back off. “Looks like they’re having electrical problems.”
“You think the EMP knocked out all the power?”
Willie looked at his second in command. “I’d say that was probably it. Too unlikely to be a trap. Let’s see what our spy says about this.” He waved Angie over. “You think that alien artifact might have caused that EMP?”
Angie thought for a moment. “I don’t know. It
’
s possible. No other alien artifact recovered does this, but we haven’t seen anything that looks like the egg. This is going to cause a problem though.
It
probably means we have no way of contacting Shani. Cellphones and communications in general are probably fried.”
“That’s just great,” Willie casually commented, as if he almost expected this to happen. “I guess the free ride is over boys and girls. We’re going to have to break our way in the hard way. Mitch, your
section
takes point. We’ll work our way around the main lab building and come in from the rear.”
The team carefully crept down to the perimeter fence and cut through it. Mitch’s
section
split off while Willie’s
section
stayed behind. A stealth entry always took patience. There was peeking, sneaking, and waiting. It took almost ten minutes for Mitch’s
section
to reach the laboratory building. They had to take care of two roving guards and a sentry taking a leak, but everything had run smoothly.
Mitch fired the tranquilizer gun.
Phht
, went the compress air rifle. The trailing guard slapped at his neck and collapsed in a heap. Switching targets, he then shot the lead guard before the first hit the ground.
Phht
. The lead guard went down moments later. His
section
rushed the final distance to a service entrance at the back of the lab. They grabbed the unconscious guards and dragged them off into the shadows where they were not likely to be found.
“Cathy, the door,” Mitch ordered.
Cathy, the team
’
s security specialist, checked the back door and opened it by just turning the door knob. “Door is unlocked, Sarge. The electronics are fried so all the mechanical safeties have kicked in and released the door locks.”
“How convenient.” Mitch and the rest of his team entered and checked the interior hall and a few rooms to see
if
it was clear. He then went back outside and signaled for Willie’s
section
to advance.
Willie’s
team
had been covering the approach to the main building from some outlying sheds. They dashed across the open distance to the rear entrance. Their raider suits had power assist and boosted every running step until they were running in quick bounds that quickly ate up the distance.
Willie conferred with Mitch and Angie inside the building. “The lab is on the
third
sublevel along with the vault.” Willie was walking them through the map via their visor displays. “We’re going to need to pass through this office area and then work our way down the stairs. Elevators will all be dead.”
“What about retrieving the doctor? We don’t have any idea where she is going to be and communications are out.”
“I think she’ll be near the artifact,” Angie guessed. “She’ll know that communications are out and that we’re on the way. Hopefully she’ll have her son with her.”
Willie caught Angie’s eye. “That’s a pretty big assumption.”
“Shani is smart. My money is on this scenario.”
“Okay,” Willie agreed. “Then we’ll get the artifact and the doctor at the same time. If not, we’ll have to split a
section
off to round her up from the residential area, but time will be very limited. Mitch, secure our exit route, and we’ll take the main access.”
The two
section
s carefully worked their way through the office area then split up. Willie’s
section
headed down, while Mitch secured the upper levels and the exit to the garage.
***
Unit One and Unit Two arrived on another low rise near the research facility. They were crouched down
in the
cover
of
a copse of acacia trees, their active camouflage making them look like an extension of the wide canopy. A couple of curious birds even perched on them, not sure what to make of these mysterious intruders.
Their overwatch position viewed the research facility from the side. They had covered the entire commando advance, including Willie’s team darting across the open to enter the building. Fortunately, there didn’t seem to be much enemy activity so far. Joshua refocused his attention on the security barracks
and
headquarters
buildings
at the front of the facility near the main gate. There were two platoons of army regulars stationed here
,
with one platoon on duty at any time. More importantly, there were four armoured personnel carriers and two H2 first generation Chinese HARM units parked in the motor pool
by the barracks
.
When the commandos exited, Penny and he would have to destroy the APCs and Chinese HARMs with their
coilgun
s
,
then cover the egress to the air strip.
“Penny, recon the airstrip. We’re playing the waiting game.”
Penny launched a small drone RPV from her HARM to reconnoiter the route to the air strip
as well as
the air strip itself.
It was a stealthy little device that would provide vital battlefield information and an overhead view.
HARM AIs acted much like a co-pilot, weapons officer, and navigator
,
and
her AI
would do most of the flying for the drone.
***
The power outage made it easier for the commandos to move around the facility. None of the interior guards they encountered wore more than regular body armour and only one or two had night vision gear. Moving silently in the darkness that was punctuated by emergency lighting, the commandos easily took care of them all.
An unfortunate pair of technicians who had been trying to restore power also lay unconscious in their wake.
"Main lab and the vault are around the next corner," Willie whispered. He
poked the
camera probe built into his suit's gauntlet around the corner. "Damn. Looks lik
e we have two guards in full
battlesuit
s. No way by them. We'll have to take these guys out the hard way." He readied his C11 advanced combat rifle. The
ACR
fired armour piercing 4.5
mm caseless round
s
at a rate of a thousand rounds a minute.
Even though
the rifle had a hundred round magazine
it had a very useful
burst fire mode to conserve ammunition. "Tamotsu. With me. I'll take the one on the left, you take the right."